Most modern-day lighting controllers are designed to control white light (or monochromatic light) in a theatrical or high-end business setting. A light producing monochromatic light, such as white, blue, or red, can be changed primarily along a single dimension—brightness—from off to a maximum brightness. Current controllers permit a user to specify a brightness for each light over time.
This method becomes increasingly more complicated for lights capable of changing the color of emitted light, because the resulting color and intensity is a combination of the intensity of three component primary colors, each of which can be set independent of the others for a particular light. Thus, the output is a function of three dimensions, rather than one, to be specified for each point in time, greatly increasing the effort and time involved in creating an effect. U.S. Pat. No. 5,307,295 to Taylor et al. describes a system for creating lighting sequences which simplifies some aspects of creating a lighting sequence, but many of the parameters still need to be specified for each light, much as they would be on a standard lighting console. A more intuitive method for designing lighting sequences would not only simplify and speed up the designing process, but would permit users to design lighting sequences with less training and experience than is often necessary today.
Furthermore, although sequences can be created and played back by traditional methods, the content of the sequences typically progresses with time and is not subject to modification during playback. For example, if a dramatic scene requires a flash of lightning to be simulated at a certain time, this effect is typically achieved either by meticulously timing the staging to make the programmed flash and the critical moment coincide, or by manually effecting the flash at the critical moment. Such techniques either require considerable reliance on chance or preclude reliance on automation.
A technique that permits an intuitive approach to designing lighting sequences would reduce the time and training required to achieve a desired effect, and would permit colored lights to be operated with a minimal impact on efficiency. Additionally, a method for executing such lighting sequences that promotes flexibility in the reproduction of the sequence will permit increased freedom in an associated performance, or allow use of programmed lighting sequences in situations which are inherently unpredictable.